Escape Velocity
by Kagha
Summary: The Kanohi Ignika, Mask of Life, flies through space at faster-than-light speeds, containing the mind and spirit of the Great Spirit Mata Nui. Orig. post date: 4/11/08


The cold substance of an icy blue nebula drifted through the cosmos, its abstract, cloudy form suspended in the endless space, the distant stars piercing its transparent body with faint glimpses of white. A wave of preternatural solar wind blazed through, a luminous orange, passing through the mist of the nebula and then splitting as an object broke through. The object floated out from the nebula, barely visible in the lightlessness of abyss, only the glow of the wind and the stars glazing across its silver surface. If one looked closer, one would see that this object was the legendary Kanohi Ignika, or Mask of Life. But not a single living being was around to glance this, and out here in the abyss, a legendary object was no more than a stranded piece of debris.

Not a second, not an instant passed before the mask was shooting forward once again, thrust by the force of more than a billion beings combined and unhindered in the lawless cosmos. It would shoot on and on for hours, to days, to years, to generations should something not block its path. But there was barely hope of that.

Inside the mask, a spirit stirred and writhed. Once he would be known as the Great Spirit Mata Nui. For one thousand years, he had been in an endless slumber cast by the wretched Brotherhood of Makuta. Just recently he had been awakened, but when he did, he found himself not in his own body but in the microscopic anatomy of the Mask of Life. The one who had taken control of his body used the tremendous strength and ability to hurl him out into the cosmos.

And yet one message still pulsed from the Great Spirit as he drifted through space, though none were around to hear it: "I will return."

A second telepathic voice hissed, stirring the spirit. "Quiet," demanded the Mask of Life, "I'm trying to concentrate."

Mata Nui seemed taken aback. "You do not order me. And what are you even trying to do?"

"I said shush," Ignika droned, his voice expressionless, two spiritual lime orbs glaring at the Great Spirit. Then they furrowed in frustration. "This environment is ... perplexing, and very enigmatic. I have never experienced anything like it before. It's so hollow, and its energies are so exotic. It's expansive and it has little to no great physical mass for me to work on... normally it would be easy for me the amass and generate matter to create myself a body or some means to transport myself, but it's much more difficult here, especially traveling at such a velocity. What makes it more difficult is your pointless, continuous utterances!" he spat out the last words. Mata Nui frowned. Normally, when he was still inside his own body, he would be able to do so much – generate entire continents-worth of energy and matter, travel amazing differences and control the very stars of the domed universe with a thought. Now, he was blatantly helpless, trapped inside a Mask he knew little about, hurling at an immeasurable speed through space. It wasn't as if he'd never been through the cosmoses before, but not in his own body, it was so very... awkward...

"This is the Mask of Life," he remarked, more to himself than to Ignika. "Do you know how to use it?"

"Of course I know how to use it," Ignika said expressionlessly. The Great Spirit frowned once more. No being spoke to him like this – the others would converse to him here and there back when he was still in his own body before the Great Cataclysm, but never like this. He guessed he just wasn't used to communicating with normal beings. They were meant to be his children, the ones he protected, the "tiny" ones, not ones who shot him glares and spat at him.

"I am the Mask of Life," Ignika said, his voice still unreadable. He still wasn't used to expressing emotion... or having emotion. "And I am trying to control my power... wait. Did you see that?"

"No."

"The spark. Matter!" It couldn't be said that there was zeal in the Ignika's words. The Mask of Life reached out, gathering the matter and energy and using the tiny amounts to replicate more, coalesce it, shape it and bring it towards them. Before long, a body formed beneath the mask. Its colors were mystic and lurid, very, very different to anything back in the domed universe, and streaked with energy. It was shaped as and about as big as a Toa, compared to the size of the mask, for there wasn't anything else around to compare it to. The two spirits seeped through the limbs and body. "We now have a body," confirmed Ignika. "Now we have to find a way to get control of our path."

"I will return to the Matoran," said Mata Nui.

"You cannot right now," said Ignika. "We have to..." in a wisp of energy, the body was swept away into what could only be related to vapor, even though looking at it, it didn't seem anything like it. By experience, Ignika took it instinctively that this would be a time to get frustrated. "No!" It hissed telepathically, the only way it could speak.

Mata Nui stared out into the nebulas and stars, distant planets and suns, as they zipped through the cosmos unbrokenly. "We must do something," he said. "We must stop this freefall. I must return to the Matoran."

"Well, so do I!" Ignika snapped, feeling the emotion of exasperation from beings back in the domed universe kick in to him. "Or something. I just know I have to get out of here. It is not destiny."

"I must be with the Matoran. I will return." Mata Nui murmured. Ignika hissed wordlessly. They flew by a floating chunk of spacerock, and Ignika immediately gathered the matter to make them another body. Unfortunately, they almost instantly made impact with another asteroid as they flew and the body shattered. Ignika snarled.

"Wait," Mata Nui hummed. "All these asteroids! I recognize the pattern... they must be in orbit. That means there must be a planet nearby." Ignika glanced backward, noting the shining, vivid purplish blue cluster that arced in a brilliant vee shape across the space. "We've left the cosmos of the Matoran's universe."

Suddenly, a force began to tug on the mask. "We've entered the gravitational field of the planet," Mata Nui said. The velocity of their drive stopped and they were ripped backward violently, which would've shredded an ordinary being to slits. That is, if they hadn't been already torn apart on the way here. But the Kanohi Ignika wasn't an "ordinary being".

The mask began to swerved and bullet through space again, only on a different course. Both Mata Nui and Ignika could see the massive globular body breaking the blackness, illuminated by the rays of a nearby sun. They could see the seas and lands beyond its atmosphere, and the golden hues along its curved horizon, dancing up wildly. "We're in orbit." Mata Nui said.

"How long must we stay?"

"Until something stops us."

"Great," Ignika said. "It's practically just the same as before." A long moment passed, before Ignika brightened. "There is plenty of matter here to work with."

If anyone could see, they would notice the mask flare, and the space around it began to shrivel as matter appeared. He began to forge a body, when something slammed into the back of the mask, so great it jerked them out of orbit and plummeting towards the planet. "What was that?" Ignika asked as they raced by, at such a speed any sort of normal substance – stone, metal, even protosteel – would be disintegrated. "Blaze," Mata Nui merely said.

They passed through the atmosphere and the speed of their fall increased. They were shooting through the clouds, wind buffeting the sides of the mask, before rocketing to a land far below.


End file.
